Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社ソニー・コンピュータエンタテインメント) is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony. The company was established on November 16, 1993 in Tokyo, Japan, prior to the launch of the original PlayStation video game system. Sony Computer Entertainment handles the research & development, production, and sales of both hardware and software for the PlayStation line of handheld and home console video game systems. It is also a developer and publisher of video game titles and is composed of several subsidiaries covering the company's biggest markets: North America, Europe and Asia. History The North American operations, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, were established in May 1994 as a division of Sony Electronic Publishing. They were located in Foster City and headed by Steve Race. In the months prior to the release of PlayStation in Western markets, the operations were restructured: All videogame marketing from Sony Imagesoft was folded into SCEA in July 1995, with most affected employees transferred from Santa Monica to Foster City. On August 7, 1995, Steve Race unexpectedly resigned and was named CEO of Spectrum HoloByte three days later. He was replaced by Sony Electronics veteran Martin Homlish. As part of a worldwide restructuring at the beginning of 1997, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (currently Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC), headquartered in Foster City was reestablished as a wholly owned subsidiary of SCEI. On July 1, 2002 Chairman of SCE, Shigeo Maruyama, was replaced by Tamotsu Iba as Chairman. Jack Tretton and Phil Harrison were also promoted to Senior Vice President of SCE. On September 14, 2005, SCE formed Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS), a single internal entity overseeing all wholly owned development studios within SCE. It is responsible for the creative and strategic direction of development and production of all computer entertainment software by all SCE-owned studios, all of which is produced exclusively for the PlayStation family of consoles. Shuhei Yoshida was named as President of SCE WWS on May 16, 2008, replacing Kazuo Hirai, who was serving interim after inaugural SCE WWS President Phil Harrison left the company in early 2008. On November 30, 2006 President of SCE Ken Kutaragi was appointed as Chairman of SCE while Kazuo Hirai, President of SCEA was promoted to President of SCE. On April 26, 2007 Ken Kutaragi resigned from his position as Chairman of SCE and Group CEO passing on his duties to President of SCE, Kazuo Hirai. On April 15, 2009 David Reeves, President and CEO of SCE Europe, announced that he would be resigning from his post. He had joined the company in 1995 and was appointed as Chairman of SCEE in 2003 and President in 2005. His role of President and CEO of SCEE would be taken over by Andrew House who joined Sony Corporation in 1990. On December 8, 2005, video game developer Guerrilla Games, developers of the ''Killzone'' series, was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS. On January 24, 2006 video game developer Zipper Interactive, developers of the ''SOCOM'' series, was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS. On September 20, 2007 video game developers Evolution Studios and Bigbig Studios, developers of the MotorStorm series, were acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS. On April 1, 2010 Sony Computer Entertainment was restructured to bring together Sony's mobile electronics and personal computers divisions. The main Japanese division of SCE was temporarily renamed to "SNE Platform Inc." (SNEP) on April 1, 2010 and split into two division focusing on different aspects namely "Sony Computer Entertainment Inc." consisting of a 1,300 employees which focus on the console business, and the network service business consisting of 60 to 70 employees. The network service business of SCE was absorbed into Sony Corp's Network Products & Service Group (NPSG) which has already been headed by Kazuo Hirai since April 2009. The original Sony Computer Entertainment was then dissolved after the restructure. The North American and European branches of Sony Computer Entertainment was affected by the restructure and will remain as SCEA and SCEE. Sony Computer Entertainment CEO and Sony Corporation EVP, Kazuo Hirai, is leading both departments. On March 2, 2010 video game developer Media Molecule, developers of the PlayStation 3 game LittleBigPlanet, was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS. As of August 23, 2010, the headquarters of the company moved from Minami-Aoyama to the Sony City (Sony Corporation's headquarters) in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo. On April 20, 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment was the victim of an attack on its PlayStation Network system, which also affected its online division, Sony Online Entertainment. On August 1, 2011, video game developer Sucker Punch Productions, developers of the Sly Cooper series and Infamous series, was also acquired. On June 25, 2012, Kazuo Hirai retired as chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, however, he remains on the board of directors. On January 10, 2013, Sony renamed SCE Cambridge Studio to Guerrilla Cambridge which will act as a sister studio to Guerrilla Games. 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